THE MEDIA BUSINESS

THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Murdoch Replaces Fox Programming Chief

By BILL CARTER

Published: September 30, 1994

In a shake-up that appears to signal a seismic shift in the programming strategy that has built the Fox television network, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Inc., replaced the network's chief programmer yesterday with an executive recruited from CBS.

Sandy Grushow, who had spent his entire career with Fox, working his way up to the title of president of Fox Entertainment, will be replaced in that job by John Matoian, who joined Fox in March from CBS, where he had headed the network's movie division.

Mr. Grushow was closely associated with Fox's steady ascension in the prime-time programming competition, having served in both marketing and programming positions.

A Fox statement labeled the change a resignation, but several executives close to Mr. Grushow said he had been dismissed by Mr. Murdoch. These executives said Mr. Murdoch has been exerting much closer control over Fox in the last year. They cited his decision earlier this year to force out Lucie Salhany as the network president.

Mr. Grushow declined to comment yesterday.

One senior Fox executive said Mr. Murdoch had grown impatient with the pace of Fox's expansion toward full network status and wanted to change Fox's image as an exclusively youth-oriented network in favor of a broader approach to programming.

Mr. Murdoch, in an interview in his New York office yesterday, said he had made the move simply because of Mr. Matoian's programming talents. "In John Matoian we have the best programming executive in America," Mr. Murdoch said. "I think he's the man who made CBS No. 1 the past two years."

As for Mr. Grushow, Mr. Murdoch said: "Sandy was very energetic. I had no trouble with him, no arguments with him. I think he was much more of a marketing man than a program developer. John is a developer."

Mr. Murdoch did not tie the decision to any specific disappointment with the performance of Fox's new programs this fall. "I think our schedule was average," he said.

But other industry executives said Fox had been expecting more from its shows this fall, especially after Mr. Murdoch spent more than $1 billion to outbid CBS for the rights to broadcast National Football League games.

Fox fell especially short in developing new comedies, putting only two new ones on the air this fall. Mr. Murdoch was said to have hated one of them, "Wild Oats," and the show was dropped from Fox's schedule yesterday, along with the show that followed football on Sunday nights, "Fortune Hunter."

Of the latter, Mr. Murdoch said: "It was very old-fashioned. It's hard after watching the drama of six or seven hours of football to get people to refocus their minds to watch a different sort of another drama."

He also said it was unreasonable to expect football to lift Fox's Sunday night schedule significantly, since the games lead directly into prime time on only eight or nine Sundays -- and then only in two-thirds of the country. (Football ends much earlier on the West Coast.)

Mr. Murdoch did not say what Fox would now put on to follow football, but one senior industry executive with ties to Fox said that Mr. Murdoch had firmly decided to put a new news-magazine program, "Full Disclosure," on opposite CBS's powerhouse "60 Minutes" at 7 P.M. on Sundays.

Mr. Matoian said a decision had not yet been made, adding that he had not even seen "Full Disclosure" yet. "I expect I will have free rein to make decisions," Mr. Matoian said. "Rupert tells me I will."

But other Fox executives said Mr. Murdoch had not allowed Mr. Grushow to pursue his own programming vision, largely because Mr. Grushow still believed in the approach that helped establish Fox: a skew toward younger urban viewers with shows that were often described as experimental or edgy.

Mr. Matoian said he intended to add variety to Fox's programs. "My mandate is to grow the place, expand its ratings and its success," he said. "Does that apply to expanding it beyond viewers between 18 and 34, and moving more toward the 18 to 49 year old audience? Yes, I think it does."

Some Fox executives close to Mr. Grushow regard this strategy as a mistake because it will take away from what they call Fox's "brand identity."